Nothing sends ocean swimmers fleeing for shore faster than a fin sighting. For some brave souls, however, the thrill of floating alongside these big fish far outweighs the fright. Here are the best places in the world to get nose-to-snout with sharks.

As I explained in my op-ed for the Christian Science Monitor, Jordan and I first became concerned about this issue when I came across brutal reports of thousands of lifeless, finless sharks found on the ocean floor off the Colombian coast. What, we wondered, could we in Texas do about this problem?

I love connecting with inspiring people who have dedicated their lives to making the world a better place. Jeff Corwin is that guy. Jeff exemplifies the power of what one person can accomplish in a positive way to improve our world.

How is a shark finned? A shark is caught, its fin is cut off and the shark is thrown back into the ocean, alive, to drown to death. The remnants of thousands of dead sharks -- brutally killed -- are sitting on shelves of Chinatowns all over the United States.

As families around the world prepare festive plans for holiday feasting, thankfully a certain soup is swimming off the menu this year -- shark fin soup. As a result, many of the important and majestic sharks that maintain balance in our marine ecosystems will roam free, fins intact.

In the high-action TV show Nikita, Maggie Q plays the title character, a coolheaded rogue assassin being hunted by secret agents. In real life, though, she wouldn't harm a fly -- or any other living thing.

Costa Rica is often applauded for its progressive environmental policies and peaceful democracy. I know it as a Mecca of sustainable tourism and perfect surf breaks. Yet the brutal, enormously profitable shark fin trade has prospered in Costa Rica's waters and ports since the late-1990's, making this tropical Central American country a key outpost in the global shark fin trade.

A little more than one year ago, photographer Terry Goss dove into the choppy water off the coast of Rhode Island to swim with blue and mako sharks. What he found beneath the opaque surface of the ocean was clear evidence that the sharks he encountered there were suffering.

Since the release of Jaws in 1975, we've been wading into the water a bit more tentatively. But it is the sharks that need to worry. They've been around for almost half a billion years, but they could go extinct on the West Coast in the coming decades.